The CAA has defended its push for Atol reform amid the sector’s strong post-Covid recovery and against industry demands to retain choice for licence holders, insisting it must think beyond “what is right in the moment”.
CAA group director for consumers and markets Paul Smith told the Barclays Travel Forum in London last week: “We didn’t launch this [Atol reform] process on a whim.
“Atol has been remarkably successful [and] what it delivers is clearly valued by consumers. We want the scheme to continue to work well. [But] we’ve looked at the challenges of the last 15 years and that is part of the reason we’re looking at change.
“There is an opportunity to improve the robustness of the regime while maintaining competitiveness for consumers. Our role is to think not about what is right in the moment but about making the system fit for the future – recognising what we’ve seen over time and that global factors can make life more difficult.”
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Smith said the CAA would consider “how we make change simple, recognising the sector is diverse”.
A CAA ‘request for further information’ on reform proposals closed at the end of March and a follow-up consultation on detailed plans is expected by the autumn.
Smith insisted: “We don’t consult just for the sake of it. We’re trying to learn from it. We’ll think carefully about the responses.”
Paul Nunn, Advantage Travel Partnership chief operating officer, told the Barclays forum: “Change is needed, but it needs to be proportionate. We don’t believe wholesale change is warranted, and don’t believe segregation [of customer funds] should be mandatory.”
He argued: “We have a system that is successful. The CAA admits that. We are pro-choice. We don’t think mandating one way is about choice.”
Abta director of membership and financial protection Rachel Jordan agreed, saying: “This is an opportunity to get two sets of regulations aligned – the Package Travel Regulations and Atol. That would be positive. What would be less positive is mandatory segregation [of customer money].”
Smith said: “It would be great if we could do things [Atol and the PTRs] together. We work with colleagues in government, but we’re mindful the government has a lot else on. We’ve started a process we can control.”
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